Pages

Monday, May 27, 2013

Kerry, in Ethiopia, Strongly Defends Drone Policy

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry jokingly checks his height, comparing
it to that of an unidentified student who is acting as his stand-in for
rehearsals, before the start of a town hall meeting with students
during his visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sunday May 26, 2013. Kerry
visited Ethiopia to mark the 50th anniversary of the African Union. (AP
Photo/Pool, Jim Young)

Secretary of State John Kerry defended U.S.
antiterrorism policies in a sometimes-contentious town hall meeting in
Addis Ababa, just before departing Ethiopia Sunday.
Mr. Kerry, in response to audience questions about the U.S. drone
program, vigorously defended the justice of kill strikes by unmanned
aerial vehicles just days after President Barack Obama’s big speech last week narrowing the scope of the fight against terrorism.
“The only people we fire at are confirmed terror targets, at the
highest level. We don’t just fire a drone at somebody we think is a
terrorist,” Mr. Kerry said, adding that strikes are ruled out if there
could be collateral damage. He went on to describe the drone program as
one of the “most accountable,” unlike terrorist attacks, which are
indiscriminate.
Mr. Kerry appeared to be describing the administration’s new drone
strategy, unveiled in Mr. Obama’s speech, which aims to increase the oversight process determining drone targets.
But questioners in Ethiopia and around the world who joined in via
social media were upset with earlier strikes. So-called signature
strikes were a staple of the Obama administration’s earlier policy,
often targeting individuals who met the profile of terrorists but whose
identity was unknown. And collateral damage from drone strikes has been a
powerful source of anti-American sentiment in countries such as
Pakistan and Yemen.
Last week, the administration acknowledged killing a 16-year old boy
in a controversial strike on a U.S. citizen, al Qaeda propagandist Anwar
al-Awlaki, in Yemen.
Still, Mr. Kerry said that the “preference is to capture terrorists”
rather than kill them, calling the hit on Osama bin Laden an exception.
Mr. Kerry called the war in Afghanistan a success, saying that the
U.S. has “destroyed the fundamental capacity of al Qaeda,” even though
some offshoot groups still pose “some threat.”
He was pressed about what the U.S. would do about some of those other
groups, such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has expanded out
of Mali to neighboring countries. He urged African countries to tackle
the problem by improving their governance and increasing their
government capacity to resist terror groups.
“It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the United States, way across the ocean,” he said.
Other questions in the town hall, to be broadcast this week by BBC,
included queries as to why the U.S. “did nothing” to help Syrians, in
contrast to prompt intervention in Libya. Syria, Mr. Kerry said, is
“complicated.”
Asked about U.S. human rights abuses in the war on terror, Mr. Kerry
referred to the scandal of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, saying that all
responsible parties had been “held accountable.”
Questioned about why China, Brazil and other countries are investing
more in Africa than the U. S., he acknowledged that’s the case, but in
an apparent reference to China, he added that some countries’
investments in Africa “undermine democracy” and transparency.
Finally, speaking of how to tackle climate change, he said developing
countries such as Ethiopia should “demand” that the U.S. and other big
emitters of greenhouse gases clean up their act. He did stress the
progress the U.S. has made in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, a
byproduct of the natural-gas bonanza in the U.S.
http://blogs.wsj.com/